One of my favorite Christmas cookies, from my childhood, were the Candy Cane Cookies my Mom used to make. They are still one of my favorite cookies and my Mom still makes sure that I get some every Christmas whether I make it home or not. My wife has learned to make the also. Not that I’m not capable of making them, but they are a labor of love and can be a pain to make. Just another reason that my wife rocks!

So what is so difficult about making these Candy Cane Cookies? Well, first you need to make 2 batches of the dough. One you leave plain, while the other you tint red. You then allow the doughs to chill briefly. Once that’s done you then start rolling out 6-8″ long ropes of dough about 1/4″ in diameter. Taking 1 red rope and one white rope you twist the 2 together and form into a candy cane. These then get baked. And if this sounds like a pain, well it’s even more of pain than it sounds, but they make great looking cookies.

While I loved these cookies as a kid (and still do) I always thought it was strange that they looked like candy canes but they didn’t really taste like candy canes (except for the crushed candy canes that were sprinkled onto the hot cookies, as they came out of the oven. It wasn’t until I was older that I learned that the flavoring for these cookies was actually almond extract. Since I’ve been out on my own, I’ve tried replacing the almond extract with peppermint extract to make these cookies more “candy cane” like, but found that I didn’t care for them as much. I’m not sure if that is due to my bias for the cookies of my youth or if the almond extract really does work better. But I have to admit there is something wonderful in the play of flavors between the almond flavored cookie and the crushed candy canes on top.

Getting ready for the recent bake sale I was involved in, I knew that I wanted to do these cookies, but seeing as it was a bake sale and these cookies were going to be transported numerous times I wanted a cookie what wasn’t as fragile as the candy canes that we usually made. Keeping with the candy theme though I decided to roll the 2 colored doughs into a pinwheel, slice them and bake them with lollipop sticks to create cookie lollipops. And I have to admit I almost like them better than the traditional candy canes. I said almost, but not quite. Again though that is just a bias for the cookies of my youth. Either way you decide to make them they will turn out great. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do

Pinwheel Cookie Lollipops
makes approximately 30-34 cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup candy canes, crushed
1/4 cup granulated sugar

In a mixer beat together the butter and the sugar. Add the egg and extracts and mix to combine. Add the flour and salt and mix until a sticky dough forms. Wrap dough in plastic and allow to chill for 45-60 minutes. Meanwhile make another batch of the dough, tinting this one red. Chill this dough also. Once chilled place the white dough on a piece of wax paper and roll out to a rectangle about 15″ inches long and 11″ wide. Adding only enough flour to keep the dough from sticking. Do the same to the red dough but only rolling it out to 15″x10″. Center the red dough on top of the white dough and gently roll up pinwheel style along the longer edge, rolling as tightly as you can. Transfer roll to a large piece of plastic wrap and wrap the dough tightly, twisting in the ends a bit to tighten the dough and give you a uniform width throughout. Chill the dough overnight.

Preheat your oven to 375°F. Trim one end off of the cookie roll and start cutting slices about 1/4″ thick. Remove the plastic wrap from the individual slices (it’s easier to slice it with the plastic on it).

Use a thin bladed slicing knife and wipe it clean every couple of cuts for ease of cutting. Place slices on parchment on cookie sheets and add lollipop sticks (if using). Bake for 9 minutes. Meanwhile combine the crushed candy canes and granulated sugar. After 9 nine minutes remove cookies from oven and lightly sprinkle with the candy cane/sugar mixture. Return to the oven for 1 minute longer (no longer). Remove from oven and allow to cool, on the pans for about 4-5 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack to continue cooling.

Okay, it finally happened. I succumbed to the holiday cookie mania sweeping blogs and the web this time of year. I feel guilty… and kind of dirty, like when you fall prey to one of those forbidden pleasures, but these cookies are so good I have to share them with everyone. Rich, chewy, decadently fudgy, with a crisp exterior and a soft, moist crumb, what’s not to love? Just writing about them makes me feel a little sinful.

Seriously, these are great, little cookies, eaten as is or sandwiched together with a little raspberry jam, these little morsels are usually on of the first things to disappear off of any cookie platter. The key to them is to not over bake them. Pull the cookies from the oven when they still look slightly underdone. This way you will end up with that crisp exterior, and fudgy, brownie like interior.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

2 cups sugar, granulated
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract
4 squares (1 oz each) unsweetened chocolate,melted and cooled slightly
4 each eggs
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 pinches salt
1 cup confectionery sugar

Combine the sugar, oil and vanilla in a stand mixer. Add the chocolate and mix to fully incorporate. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add flour, salt, and baking powder and just mix to combine. Don’t worry, the mixture will be more like a thick brownie batter than a cookie dough.

Chill batter for, at least, 3 hours or overnight. When ready to bake preheat the oven to 350. Scoop approximately 1-1 1/2 tablespoons of batter into a ball. Roll in the confectionery sugar and place on a cookie tray.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until almost no indent remains when touched. Allow to cool on pans for 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack. Serve as is or sandwich the cookies with raspberry jam for an extra special treat.

Yesterday we got as far as cutting and baking the gingerbread pieces. Today it is time to assemble and decorate. But before we can do that we need to make some Royal Icing to use as our glue.

Royal Icing
1 each egg white
1 tsp. cream of tartar
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Beat egg white just until it loosens up. Add cream of tartar and powdered sugar. Stir until fully incorporated. You may need to add more sugar, to get a thick, frosting like consistency. Using just enough icing to adhere the pieces, build the base of your house, like in the picture below, using heavy cans of food to hold the pieces together as the icing hardens. This probably won’t be enough but I prefer to work with smaller batches and make it more often.

Use only enough icing to hold the pieces together, initially. This helps the icing dry more quickly than when it it loaded on. After it dries and the pieces are somewhat secure, you can then go back and reinforce the joints with more icing. Only after you have a solid base, with joints that have dried, can you then add the roof. The same rule applies here; add only enough icing to cement the pieces together to speed the drying process, then go back and reinforce. As you can see from the picture below, I have found it easiest to place the roof flat on the counter top and prop up the house. This works for small houses, but not large structures.

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One of my favorite pastimes during this season is making Gingerbread houses.  I have made all kinds of Gingerbread houses from the very large and ornate to the small and simple; I love making them all.  I have created a number of large “centerpiece” houses for various functions and benefits, my favorite being the large church I created as the centerpiece for the gift table at my own wedding.  It was over 2 feet long and the steeple stood almost that high.  With large, candy “stained glass windows, Golden Grahams as roofing shingles and a full array of bells in the steeple the project took weeks to complete, but I enjoyed almost every minute of it.  Then there was the time, as chef of a country club, when I had to make 30 mini Gingerbread houses for kids to decorate.  I didn’t take the simple way out and make them out of graham crackers but cut out and “glued” together 30 of the little things.

Look for Part II where we put the house together and let my daughter have her way with it.

It’s been a few years since I last made a Gingerbread house, but this year my daughter is 3 and I figured it would be a good time to restart the tradition. Of course she is still too young to help Daddy build a Gingerbread house, but she would be more than capable of decorating one, so I set out to build a couple of houses, one for her and one for the neighbor boy who I thought would also like to decorate a house.

The making of Gingerbread houses is not a single day task, unless you want to drive yourself insane. I find that I like to spread it out over 3-4 days, if making an average sized house, many more if making a large or elaborate structure. Day 1 – make and chill the dough. Day 2 – roll out, cut and bake the dough. Day 3 – assemble the house. Day 4 – decorate the house. Of course some of these steps can be combined into single days, but as a working stiff, I find that breaking it up this way makes each step easy to accomplish while still allowing me time to do other things after work.

Gingerbread Dough

2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup molasses
5 1/4 cups Flour, all purpose
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground clove
2 pinches salt
3/4 cup water

Cream together the butter and the brown sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add the molasses and mix well. Sift together the flour and baking soda and add, along with the spices and salt. Once well mixed add the water and mix to incorporate. Chill dough at least 3 hours, or better yet, over night. Meanwhile draw out your template for your house. For a basic Gingerbread house you will need 2 sides, a front and back and 2 roof pieces for a total of 6 pieces or 3 template pieces.

To make a house with the same dimesions as I have pictured your side template should be 3″ tall x 4″ long, the template for the front and back (same template for both, just no door or window cut out for the back) is 5″ wide, a side height of 3″, and a roof slope of 5″. The roof template will then need to be 5 1/2″ tall (the extra 1/2″ for overhang) by 5 to 5 1/2″ wide (again to provide some overhang in the front and back and taking into account the width of the gingerbread pieces on the front and back).

After you have let the dough chill for the appropriate amount of time you then need to roll the dough out. Use plenty of flour to dust the dough with, to prevent sticking and roll it out on parchment paper cut to fit your cookie trays. The reason for this is once you cut the pieces it is easier to move the whole parchment paper so that you don’t accidentally stretch the dough out of shape. For a smaller house like this, roll the dough out to about 1/4″ thick, for larger structures you will want the stability of dough rolled out to 1/2″ thick. Place your templates on the dough and cut out the pieces cutting about 1/8″ larger than the templates. Bake in a 350F oven for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool, for 5 minutes on trays before transferring to a cooling rack. While still slightly warm shave the pieces down, using a serrated knife, to the exact size needed.

If you want to created glass windows or stained glass windows, use a hammer to crush up hard candies such as Jolly Ranchers. When the dough has 5 minutes more to bake, fill window with crushed candy, mounding it up in the center. Return to oven and finish baking.

A quick word about edibility. This recipe makes a great dough that provides both a good flavor and good stability. If you are not so concerned about edibility then there are few things I would recommend doing. First off, I would double all the spices. Doesn’t make for great eating but all those added spices helps keep the Gingerbread house fragrant for quite a long time. Also I would lower the heat to 325F and bake the dough for about 35-40 minutes. This will dry out the dough even more making it more stable, but also much tougher on the teeth.

I can’t say that Whoopie Pies were commonplace in our household when I was growing up, but I do remember my mom making them on occasion. What I remember most is that she made them in the summer and froze them. They would then become a nice, cool treat for me and my brother. They’d last a long time as they were rock solid, when frozen, and we’d have to kind of scrape away at them with our molars until they thawed enough to really bite into.

For those of you unfamiliar with whoopie pies, they are a snack consisting of 2 very large, cake-like, chocolate “cookies” with a sweet, white filling sandwiched in between. They were, originally, a treat of the Amish and Pennsylvania Dutch but in the early part of the 20th century they found their way to New England where they have also become very popular, especially in Maine. While chocolate is the traditional flavor for the “cookies,” bakeries are now producing whoopie pies in all manner of flavors, of which pumpkin is probably the most favored seasonal rendition, after chocolate.

Whoopie Pies are not your “dainty” little snack, nor are they for the weak of heart, considering the hefty amount of vegetable shortening in the filling. It is said that a whoopie pie should be approximately the size of a hamburger, bun and all. Enough to feed 3 women or 1 growing boy.

I was thrilled the other day, when my wife said she wanted to make whoopie pies. Visions of my childhood flooded back and I couldn’t wait for them to get done. Neither could our daughter, who quickly swiped the paddle from the stand mixer and claimed it for herself.

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I have spent a lot of time reading food blogs over the last year and I have come across many great blogs and great people, both professional chefs and at home cooks, who are preparing some tasty food and offering up some excellent recipes and advice. One thing that seems to be lacking though are accounts of failures. There are a few bloggers out there admitting to failures but for the most part, most bloggers tend not to write on their missteps. I find this too bad as often there is more to be learned in someone’s failure than in their success. With that said, I offer up this post on a recent failure of great proportions in the hopes that it might offer some help to those that have had the same trouble.

In a recent post I discussed my desire to start sharpening my baking skills again after letting them languish for a number of years. Well this week I got a bug up my ass to bake french macaroons. I love french macaroons, their crispy exterior and soft, moist interior and subtle flavor of almonds have always been a weakness for me though I haven’t had them in years as it isn’t easy to locate them in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. I remember baking these in culinary school and from what I had remembered they took a certain amount of finesse but weren’t overly difficult to create. I grabbed one of my “go-to” cookbooks on french cooking (which shall remain nameless) and prepared to make the first batch of macaroons that I had baked in 15+ years. As you can see by the photograph at the top of the page, it was a disaster. I can’t lay all the blame on the cookbook, though I will lay most of it with it. My first mistake was following the first recipe I read. Even when I trust a cookbook I usually do a good bit of research before attempting a food for the first time, but with craziness at work, I blew that part off. It sure would have saved a good amount of time if I had bothered to have done my research. Allow me to list my macaroon transgressions, in order of importance, so that you won’t make the same mistakes. 1. The recipe never called for making a meringue. It only had me whip the egg whites to “just barely stiff peak” then add my almond sugar mixture into that. All the other recipes I know of use meringue as the base for the macaroon and whipped egg whites alone are not a meringue. 2. The recipe called for a short baking time at a slightly higher temperature. I have since seen two schools of thought on this, in my subsequent research. One bakes at a slightly elevated heat for a brief period (8-10 minutes), while the other bakes at a lower temperature for a much longer period (anywhere from 15-30 minutes depending on the recipe). With the knowledge I have now, I think I will be baking lower and longer. 3. I am pretty sure I slightly over whipped my egg whites. While they were not where close to becoming dry or separating, I think, according to various recipes, I shouldn’t have taken them as far as I did. 4. Finally, since I was grinding almonds and not using almond flour the recipe says to sift the almond sugar mixture. I didn’t, thinking that I would like the more rustic texture of a few bits of almond. I was wrong. The almonds gave the macaroons texture but not in a pleasant sort of way.

Armed with this knowledge of my errors, and a whole lot of research, I am planning on tackling macaroons again. Not sure how soon I will get to them, but be on the lookout for follow up posts as I am determined to get these little buggers right!